What started all this? Does anyone remember? Was he cracking down on dissent? Was he ignoring the needs of the poor? I thought this was the guy that got elected by the people just a couple of years ago.

The US declared independence from England in 1776. George Washington became President in 1789. In between, we had the Continental Congress, the Articles of Confederation, and essentially 13 little nations with a common coin and army.

These things don't always work flawlessly the first time. Give the Egyptians some time, and be thankful that their military seems to be big on the Rule of Law.

Tommy Moo:What started all this? Does anyone remember? Was he cracking down on dissent? Was he ignoring the needs of the poor? I thought this was the guy that got elected by the people just a couple of years ago.

He was turning the nation into a terrorist factory. He was also exploiting the countries resources for Western-interests.

Basically he was playing both sides against the middle. The middle being the Egyptian people.

You'd biatch about it either way, that's for certain."Wah wah wah, Muslims have took over Egypt.""Wah wah wah, military has removed the Muslim dictator that was fairly elected, wah wah wah."

Yes. Both of those are pretty shiatty outcomes, I think.

Morsi's job was to help formulate a new constitution. The anti-Islamists wanted nothing to do with the process, and now are pissed that they were left out. For the most part, Morsi has been a pitiable bystander in watching his country get torn apart.

Think of Morsi as Obama and the protestors as the House Republicans. The ideals may be different, but the tactics are very similar.

This is not a coup. A coup suggests a framework in which a strong military decides to take over a previously independent government.

This is more a situation where before the Arab Spring, the actual power of Egypt was the military, after it, the actual power of Egypt was the military, and with the removal of Morsi, the actual power of Egypt will be the military.

It is somewhat similar to discussions of Iran electing a reformer president, which sounds heartening until you realize that the actual power both before, during and after Ahmadinejad was always the Supreme Cleric.

You'd biatch about it either way, that's for certain."Wah wah wah, Muslims have took over Egypt.""Wah wah wah, military has removed the Muslim dictator that was fairly elected, wah wah wah."

To be fair, sometimes all paths out of a terrible situation are, themselves, terrible. If this gets it through the collective consciousness of their leaders that elected doesn't mean all-powerful, then there's hope for the next election. I'm not sure I believe that.

Glendale:This happens so much over there I don't even give a shait anymore.

This is only the second time in quite a while that Egypt has tried to change power. The first being from a dictator to a democracy, and now being "hey you suck at democracy, Morsi and MB, let's fix this/Nuh uh the MB is fine ignore the protests." It's not like this happens every 3 years or something.

Tommy Moo:What started all this? Does anyone remember? Was he cracking down on dissent? Was he ignoring the needs of the poor? I thought this was the guy that got elected by the people just a couple of years ago.

I think when he came out and said the Egyptian constitution doesn't apply to him was the beginning of the end but yeah economics and crime/corruption are hurting him too.

netweavr:Tommy Moo: What started all this? Does anyone remember? Was he cracking down on dissent? Was he ignoring the needs of the poor? I thought this was the guy that got elected by the people just a couple of years ago.

He was turning the nation into a terrorist factory. He was also exploiting the countries resources for Western-interests.

Basically he was playing both sides against the middle. The middle being the Egyptian people.

But he was democratically elected. You can't have a democracy if you decide "Oh, I don't like that guy. We'll just have the military oust him".

Tommy Moo:What started all this? Does anyone remember? Was he cracking down on dissent? Was he ignoring the needs of the poor? I thought this was the guy that got elected by the people just a couple of years ago.

no one really started the fire... it was always burning, since the worlds been turning

I'm just glad both sides blame America for this. The protestors are holding up anti-Obama messages accusing America of backing Morsi the same way we did Mubarak. Morsi has suggested that any success the protestors have is a sign the West is trying to stamp out the Muslim Brotherhood and is manipulating events in Egypt. In other words, both sides are butthurt over their belief we masterminded a dispute we had jack all to do with.

Let's see how the military deals with this: go the democratic route again, or decide to forgo the appearance that they haven't been running the country they've been keeping up for decades.

Why are people so shocked an appalled at this? Revolutions aren't one-shot deals, and then everything is fairies and roses. Look at the two bbiggies: America went through a major evolution in the idea of democracy in the first 15 years after the Declaration of Independance (roughly, I don't recall exactly how long the Articles of Confederation where in place), and nearly a century later killed millions settling the final balance between states and federal power. France went through a half-century, two republics, two Empires, and two monarchies before they got things settled down reasonably well; but were STILL tweaking the process into the 50's when de Gaulle did basically what the Egyptian Army is doing now.

If Egypt has a Washington / de Gaulle figure, a military leader who can use the Army to gain leadership, and then remove the ability to do so right after that, then they will probably be alright. But it's going to be decades before Egypt, Libya, and Syria have this sorted out.

/Algeria and Tunisia might actually be further along in this process, Morocco seems to be there. Turkey is in the final stages of this (I think constitutional revision is coming, rather than revolution), Iraq is a huge mess, and Iran needs its own new revolution. Israel seems to be going in the other direction, towards a democratic theocracy/apartheid state